chopin prelude op. 28 no. 13

Hi all,

I asked a few months ago about whether I should stop taking lessons, since I wasn't getting much out of it. So, I decided to take the first step and learn my next piece all on my own, without any advice from my teacher. Thoughts are appreciated!

 

This is not bad Jeff, except for two really ugly read errors at 1:06 and 1:12, which you repeat at 2:50 and 2:56. Have you listened to professional recordings to check that your reading is ok ? Not having a teacher is ok I think, being proficient as you are, as long as you seek guidance from the great pianists on YouTube.

Apart from that, not much to be criticized but there are some points to improve on :-

It is a bit on the slow side (but this is a personal view)
The LH should not be so rigid and prominent.
You could be a bit more judicious with the pedal.
The middle section really drags, as does the coda.

This is one of the most lovely Preludes and it should (IMO) have a dreamy and floating quality. As a whole it should flow more, with gentle lapping rubato rather than different tempi. Come to think of it, this one could have been a Barcarolle just as well as a Prelude.

 

Ditto Chris's reply, except that through my speakers the pedal did not bother me too much. In fact, it sounded like an excessive use of reverb. (?)

 

That could have been. Either way is is blurring together a bit too much in places.

 

Chris,

Is it an E natural or E sharp for that measure 14 in the RH? The left hand has E sharp marked after the E natural in the right hand, so I wasn't sure what to do. I thought the sharp carried over, but it doesn't?

 

Accidentals don't carry over to another stave. In my edition (Paderewski) the LH E has a sharp sign and the RH E a natural sign, both carry over for the entire bar. No room for confusion.

If something sounds really weird, like these two bars do here, you can be sure something is wrong

 

In my opinion, one of the most beautiful -- and also most difficult to interpret -- of the Chopin preludes. For one thing, I think it's very tricky to know how much rubato to use. For my taste, yours seems much too little. Your left hand is nice and even, so that's a good start. But I think the reason this performance is coming across to me as rather monotonous lies in your right hand, which should sing out much more sweetly and lyrically. As it is now, the bass thumps away while the right drowns in blurred pedal. The tempo, which seems a bit on the slow side, may also be contributing to this effect. I would perhaps suggest practicing each hand separately and focusing on the proper functions of each.

An additional note is I think there doesn't seem much cause to slow down this much in the final measures.. Some would be fine but this seems a bit much.

I also found the two read errors particularly jarring. I'm certainly no stickler for accuracy, but the sound of these was a bit cringe-worthy.

 

Hi all, I practiced the piece based on the comments. I was hoping I could get some feedback on this new version.

 

This has really improved ! It's certainly more than good enough to go on the site if you wish so. Two more good recordings will be needed though.